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Medicines in Development for Parkinson's Disease
America’s biopharmaceutical research companies are currently developing 36 medicines to help the nearly 1 million Americans suffering from Parkinson’s Disease, a motor system disorder resulting from the loss of dopamine-producing brain cells. All of the medicines are either in clinical trials or awaiting review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Understanding Parkinson's Disease: Living, Working & the Economy
Each year, approximately 60,000 Americans are diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, and incidence increases with age. The combined cost to the U.S. economy in direct and indirect expenses is nearly $25 billion a year, according to the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation.
The medicines today in the research and development pipeline offer hope of reducing the human and economic costs of Parkinson’s disease. They include:- Gene therapies that target specific areas in the brain.
- Cell therapy that uses a patient’s own cells to reverse effects of the disease.
- New delivery mechanisms of currently approved treatments, including a transdermal patch and an intranasal formulation.
- Medicines to treat a motor function disorder associated with Parkinson’s disease treatment.
Researching and developing new medicines remains a risky investment and lengthy process—costing, on average, $1.2 billion, including the cost of failures, and taking between 10–15 years to bring a new medicine to patients. But advances in our understanding of diseases and how to treat them have allowed America’s biopharmaceutical research companies to conduct the cutting-edge research needed to reduce the destructive toll of Parkinson’s disease and to allow more patients to lead healthier, happier, more productive lives.
Did You Know?
- The number of people in the United States with Parkinson’s disease is estimated to be as many as 1 million, more than all people diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy and Lou Gehrig’s’ disease (ALS) combined.
- A new case of Parkinson’s disease is diagnosed in this country every nine minutes.
- Approximately 60,000 Americans are newly diagnosed each year. As the American population ages, those numbers are expected to grow. Worldwide, the number of people with Parkinson’s disease is expected to double in the next 25 years.
- Parkinson’s disease affects both men and women. The average age of onset of Parkinson’s disease is 61, but it may begin as early as age 40 or even before.
- The average age of diagnosis for Parkinson’s disease is 60, but people as young as 18 have been diagnosed.
- Forty percent of people affected by Parkinson’s disease are under the age of 60, placing them squarely in the workforce. Experts say that about one-third of employed individuals will lose their jobs within a year of a Parkinson’s diagnosis, making lost productivity a major factor in the societal impact of the disease.
- Parkinson’s disease reduces life expectancy by an average of three to nine years and is now the 14th leading cause of death in the United States.
- Red haired people have double the risk of developing Parkinson’s Disease. The pigment that colors hair red is made from L-dopa, just as is dopamine, the substance whose deficiency causes Parkinson’s disease.
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